Smithies show championship form

"I've never been one to play up the revenge factor," said the long-time Smithville football coach, after his Smithies beat back a determined Northwestern Huskies team 28-13 Friday night. "I just told the kids Thursday to grab a focus and play championship football.

"Still, I'm sure it was in the back of their minds."

The "it" Schrock was referring to was last season's 31-8 Week 5 home loss to the Huskies. That Smithville setback resulted in both teams finishing the season in a tie for the Wayne County Athletic League championship.

The Smithies heeded Schrock's words, especially in the second half, en route to improving to 4-0 and winning their WCAL opener. Smithville snapped a 7-7 halftime tie by taking the second-half kickoff and embarking on an 11-play drive that chewed up 5:41. Quarterback Andy Foster hit Eric Beichler with a 5-yard scoring pass with 6:19 left in the quarter to give the Smithies the lead for good. It was Beichler's second touchdown of the night and accounted for just a slice of his 193 yards combined yards rushing and receiving.

The drive included nine rushing plays, but was keyed by a big Foster-to-Beichler 31-yard hookup on an outstanding one-handed grab by the Smithies' junior wingback.

"I don't know where we were in the first half, but we weren't playing very good, especially on offense," said Schrock, whose team had just three first downs and 121 yards of offense in the opening two quarters. "It was almost like we were too ready to play. I thought we were basically sleepwalking.

"The second half, though, was more like the kind of football we can play. We executed, we ran the ball and we threw it well when we had to."

The Smithies' ground game, even with Kyle Kauffman being limited to 49 yards on 16 carries, still produced more than 250 yards. Most of that belonged to Beichler, who broke loose for a pair of big runs to set up touchdowns in each half. Beichler finished with 11 carries for 157 yards.

"They're just loaded at running back," Northwestern coach Mike Thut said. "We were geared up to stop their running game and we did a good job of that in the first half. But we gave them some things in the passing game and Smithville took advantage."

Foster only threw the ball seven times all night, but completed five for 80 yards.

"We knew we had to throw the ball to win tonight," Foster said. "I was able to get in a groove early and that helped."

After allowing the Huskies only seven plays in the third quarter, Smithville took a two-touchdown lead on Foster's 13-yard keeper with 7:08 remaining. Kauffman's third PAT of the game made it 21-7 Smithville.

One play prior to Foster's score, Beichler broke loose on a 49-yard run down the sideline. It was reminiscent of a similar setup in the first quarter that saw Beichler dash 67 yards to the Huskies' 19. Three plays later, Beichler carried from the 14 to the 3, fumbled into the end zone, but scrambled back on the ball to give the Smithies a 7-0 lead with 4:58 left in the first.

"I was surprised that the ball was still laying there and no one was around it," Beichler said. "I just got up there and got on it."

Northwestern answered the Smithies' score midway through the second quarter by going on a 13-play, 74-yard drive. Quarterback Roy Woodring hit Donnie Staggs with an 11-yard TD pass at the 6:50 mark before Brett Imhoff added the tying extra point.

The Huskies couldn't carry that offensive momentum over to the final half, however. Smithville's defense limited Northwestern to just two second-half first downs before the Huskies went 70 yards in 50 seconds for their final touchdown, a 24-yard Woodring-to-Dallas Robinson connection, as time expired. Northwestern's running game took a hit when senior captain Shaun Wellert, the Huskies starting center/linebacker, suffered an apparent broken arm while on defense late in the third period.

"We played pretty well in the first half, but I still wasn't that happy with our offense," said Thut, whose team fell to 2-2 overall. "We've been pretty inconsistent offensively, even in the games that we've won, and we were like that in the first half too. We made some mistakes and a good team like Smithville is going to take advantage of those.

"Smithville made some good adjustments at halftime, because we couldn't stop them at all in the second half," Thut added. "We wanted to outhit them, and I felt we did that in the first half. We didn't do that at all in the second, and the results reflected it on the scoreboard."

Kauffman tallied the Smithies' final touchdown on a 2-yard run with less than 60 seconds left, giving the Smithies their biggest lead at 28-7.